Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments on “the end of liberal values” have been met with a violent reaction from political elites in Europe and the United States, saying that Putin’s voice is the embodiment of “tyranny of the individual and the suppression of freedoms” threatening global peace and damaging regimes and rights acquired over the past years by the international community. Putin’s statement is regarded by political analysts as another nail in the coffin of globalization, which many consider to already be at death’s door. This is evidenced by a sharp increase in trade protectionist policies and a racist hostility in the name of “patriotism”.

China, the second largest economy in the world, is mainly dependent for economic growth on the domestic consumption of the Chinese market itself, which showed a rise in consumption by more than 65 percent in the first quarter of this year. Statistics indicate that exports are no longer “essential” in China’s ability to achieve economic growth, with data showing that exports accounted for 18 percent of GDP in 2018 compared to 35 percent in 2006. But this figure and these rates are difficult to maintain. Those who hold the view that we are witnessing the end of globalization believe that in future the world will be composed of three main groups: America, Asia led by China and the European Union.

Countries such as Russia, Australia, Japan and Britain will face many problems, difficulties and challenges, according to Michael O’Sullivan, an eminent investment banker and economic lecturer at Princeton University. Countries will be reshaped according to “new” trends and this approach will change the concepts based on traditional interests. The current interaction between America and North Korea and the apparent affection between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are not purely about reaching a nuclear settlement. It is rather about combining the two Koreas into one strong entity in the US camp (plus Japan) as an economic bloc in order to weaken the increasing spread of Chinese economic dominance in Asia and the world.

The North Korean leader may be eccentric and his regime repressive and suspicious, but it does not spread terrorism and create terrorist cells that exploit the drug trade to fund its operations.

The main reason why North Korea policy differs from the Iranian regime is that Pyongyang’s “eccentricity” and “oddity” are more respectable than the pro-terrorist regime in Tehran.